Michael and I were married for 41 beautiful, adventurous years. In that time we created a loving family and a foundation that I could not be more proud of. It all started in room 238 of a hospital in Miami. Michael was a pediatrician, I was a nurse, and we were both natural caregivers who would do anything for our patients. We fell in love with each other and our matching dedication to helping sick children. We soon married in 1975 and had two children. However, there were multiple complications during the pregnancies and it wasn’t going to be possible to create the large family we wanted naturally, so we adopted our third child, Darlene, in 1986. Darlene wasn’t just any child. She was a tiny, cute little baby who happened to have Down syndrome, a severe mental handicap, and we later learned was nonverbal and legally deaf. read more →